Sunshine Week emphasizes need for transparency at all levels of government.

As the nation struggles to dig itself out of recession, transparency in government and accountability to taxpayers are as important as they’ve ever been.

The bailouts for the finance system and the stimulus package aimed at kick-starting the moribund economy threaten to build a mountain of debt to be paid off by our children and our children’s children. Taxpayers need to know exactly how the huge sums of public money are being spent.

And here in California, where taxes are being raised and spending cut to close a huge budget gap, it’s important for taxpayers to keep an eye out for wasteful spending that could be diverted to better purposes.

It’s the middle of Sunshine Week, seven days each year used to highlight the need for government transparency. The Sunshine Week initiative is led by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, but it is all about the public and the public’s right to know what its government is doing, and why.

The founders of our nation, predicating our government on the notion that the governed should know what the governing are up to, used the First Amendment to protect the freedom of the press. The press therefore has the duty and responsibility to report to the people on the workings of government.

Sunshine Week emphasizes that the people have the right to play a direct, active role in their government at all levels and to have the information they need to play that role.

The national Freedom of Information Act gives anyone who requests it access to government information that is not excluded from disclosure. On President Barack Obama’s first day in office, he urged federal agencies to err on the side of disclosure rather than on the side of secrecy in responding to FOIA requests, a reversal of the Bush administration’s emphasis on nondisclosure. Obama also called for recommendations to make the federal government more transparent.

Transparency will be needed, from the federal to the state to the county and city level, if taxpayers are to know whether federal funds are being spent in ways that actually will stimulate the economy.

Every corner of government needs a little sunshine to make sure it works to the advantage of the governed.